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TIMESTAMPS

The MIT Seal

"Who are those guys on the seal, and what are they doing?"

The laborer at the anvil and the scholar with a book on the seal
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology embody the
educational philosophy of William Barton Rogers and other
incorporators of MIT as stated in their 1860 proposal Objects
and Plan of an Institute of Technology: "...the interests of
Commerce and the Arts, as well as of General Education, call for
the most earnest co-operation of intelligent culture with
industrial pursuits." The Latin motto Mens et Manus--
"mind and hand"--and the two volumes, Science and Art, on the
pedestal also reflect the ideal of cooperation between knowledge
and practical science. The year 1861 refers to the date (10
April 1861) the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was
incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Acts 1861, Chapter 183).

The official seal of MIT was adopted on 26 December 1864 by the
Corporation in a design recommended by the Committee on the Seal,
a committee established in 1863, with President William Barton
Rogers and the Treasurer of the Institute as members. The
Corporation minutes cover only the appointment of the committee
and the approval of the seal; there are no records about the
deliberations that led to the choice of a design, so we can only
speculate. Interestingly, the title page of The Young
Mechanic, printed in Boston in 1833, bears a design similar
to the MIT seal. The seal was engraved in Philadelphia in
November 1865 by A. Paquet at a cost of $285. Copies of the bill
and receipt for the manufacture of the seal are in Rogers's
papers (MC 1) in the Institute Archives.

During President Howard Johnson's administration the design of
the seal was modernized, and both the "modern" and traditional
seal designs are now in use. Alternative, unofficial, versions of the
seal are popular with student organizations on campus.